August 2009

Earlier this year I was one of the few people in the UK who was fortunate enough to travel to Russia to attend an Iyengar Yoga Conference with the man himself – Mr BKS Iyengar - or Guruji as his followers call him. Without much notice or preparation, I found myself on a plane heading to Moscow for a 4-day convention. Needless to say, the anticipation and excitement was beyond words.

The convention was organised in a miraculously short time by the wonderful team of Yoga Journal’s Russia office – and I am, of course, forever grateful to them for being able to practice and learn yoga in the light of a living legend.

Guruji recently celebrate his 92nd birthday, and does no longer teach classes in Pune, so everybody was asking themselves a very fair question: How much teaching will Guruji actually do?

To be honest, I was just happy to be in the same room as him, so you can image everybody’s surprise when he, despite the Russian teachers’ efforts, completely took over the convention and taught pretty much all of the asana classes. Together with Abhijata, his grand-daughter, and senior teachers from Mumbai and Pune, Guruji instructed 700 students for 3 hours per day.

The convention was my very first experience of Guruji’s teaching and it was absolutely fascinating to watch the simplicity and truthfulness of his teaching. The movements were broken down into simple instructions, but overlaid with more complex philosophical concepts that were not always easy to follow. He was very strict, sometimes fierce, but also compassionate and showed great humility.

There was, of course, a lot to take in, and this blog could go on for ever trying to explain what I learnt from Guruji, but the best place to share this information is, of course, in a yoga studio – so I hope to see some of you there.

I hope my teaching will continue to be inspired by this life-changing event.

Namaste